Two neighboring parties, two completely different strategies. This is the conclusion drawn from the stance that PASOK maintains toward ELAS and vice versa. Since May 26, the date of ELAS’s founding, Charilaou Trikoupi Street has been engaged in a relentless war against Alexis Tsipras, launching a series of scathing attacks. In PASOK’s rhetoric, the former prime minister is portrayed as a representative of the country’s oligarchs, someone who is intertwined with vested interests, power-hungry and chair-obsessed — and as the “mastermind, organizer and instigator of the mud-slinging operation against the Democratic Camp, gleefully carried out by specific far-right media outlets.”
PASOK‘s arsenal against Alexis Tsipras has also incorporated the arguments once used against Stefanos Kasselakis when he was ousted from the SYRIZA leadership — including references to the now-infamous “democratic congresses held in bouzouki clubs.” At the same time, PASOK misses no opportunity to challenge ELAS‘s policy positions, except for those it considers its own and accuses Amalia Street of having copied.
This tactic lends itself to various interpretations: it may stem from fear of the dynamic comeback Tsipras is making and the possibility that he could come to dominate the vital center-left space, dethroning PASOK from its position as the official opposition. Alternatively, it may reflect a strategic choice to open a front against the former prime minister in order to mobilize centrist voters who carry negative memories of the SYRIZA–ANEL coalition government — voters that PASOK is trying to win back from Mitsotakis’s New Democracy. Many analysts, however, warn of the risk that PASOK may become identified with New Democracy, as evidenced by a series of joint announcements from the two parties targeting the former prime minister.
In connection with the clash with ELAS, PASOK’s head of strategic planning, Anna Diamantopoulou, argued that it was the former prime minister who first went on the offensive by belittling PASOK and directing more criticism at the party than at the government. “PASOK cannot respond to this attack with Christian patience, turning the other cheek,” she stressed on Skai TV. As previously noted, Alexis Tsipras is operating with a different strategy, rejecting the logic of fighting on two fronts — against both New Democracy and PASOK.
According to sources, the Amalia Street camp appears to consider it may have been a tactical mistake to issue a statement about PASOK’s debts to the banks — a move that triggered a barrage of responses from Charilaou Trikoupi. Tsipras is sending the message that while competition with PASOK exists, he does not treat it as a hostile party. Setting the tone, he noted (in.gr) that “it takes two to quarrel. It’s what we call ‘fighting with yourself.’ We are not going to follow that fight.” These developments suggest that Amalia Street has no intention of following PASOK into this confrontation and, by extension, will not be tempted to respond even to the most personal attacks directed at Tsipras. The former prime minister’s tactic is to project himself as a calm force — one that does not frighten audiences who in the past regarded him with either hostility or suspicion.
Above all, he wants to demonstrate that his party’s sole opponent is New Democracy, and more broadly, to convince wider audiences that he represents the only credible alternative pole to the right. In practice, Amalia Street is carefully seeking to attribute the attacks it receives from PASOK to “a wink from Charilaou Trikoupi toward New Democracy” — reviving scenarios of cooperation between PASOK and the conservative camp.
The hour of the Thessaloniki International Fair
In any case, the two parties are certain to cross swords on policy in Thessaloniki, with Tsipras informally opening the Thessaloniki International Fair before the prime minister does, through his appearance on September 2, while Androulakis is set to be present over the weekend of September 13 and 14. SYRIZA will also seek to stake its claim on the policy battleground. The party’s Koumoundourou headquarters has decided to send Parliamentary Group president Rena Dourou and party secretary Nikos Pappas on September 9.
The goal is to hold a speech before productive bodies as well as the customary press conference. There, SYRIZA’s vision for broader programmatic alliances will be laid out, with sources indicating that in the coming days Dourou will intensify pressure on New Left secretary Gavriil Sakellaridis to bring the two parties to the dialogue table. Highly reliable sources confirm that for a number of senior New Left figures — including Euclid Tsakalotos and Panos Skourletis — the presence of Pavlos Polakis within SYRIZA remains a significant sticking point. Even so, influential voices within the party consider cooperation with SYRIZA — as well as with broader personalities of the left-wing space — to be the only viable path forward.
Originally published in Kyriakiatiki Apogeumatini
